<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Chasing Chaos by iondeluge</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23102602">Chasing Chaos</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/iondeluge/pseuds/iondeluge'>iondeluge</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Team Tripwire [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Minor Character Death, Minor or background Relationships - Freeform, Presumed character death, aka it's there but it's not the focus of the plot, canon characters do show up but they're not really major players</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:47:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,267</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23102602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/iondeluge/pseuds/iondeluge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>(Set during an AU of Sonic Forces.)</p><p>As the world struggles to deal with the aftermath of Sonic's disappearance and Eggman's victory, two thirds of an adventuring team seek out their missing leader. Elsewhere, said leader is dealing with her own problems.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Female Character/Original Female Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Team Tripwire [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660507</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Act 1; A World On Fire</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>The idea behind this is as follows: there's been a straight up war going on for a bit before Sonic's disappearance and presumed death, it doesn't just start after - there are some other changes too, probably, but they'll come up as we go along. As a result of being a Forces AU, though, it's going to have some darker themes, since unlike the game itself I don't intend to ignore all the implications it brings up. It won't be too bad, though.</p><p>To start things off, I'll do a short overview of the main characters here, in order of their introduction:</p><p>Skylar the Wolf (17)<br/>The technician. A wolf with a love for her team that outweighs everything else to her, she enhances her own natural abilities with her tech, allowing her to keep up with the best of them. Though often analytical and prone to overthinking, her loyalty and dedication is unmatched.</p><p>Lucas Ivory (11)<br/>The spy. A bat who can't fly with a fear of heights, he uses his specialized echolocation and natural lack of presence to hide from others when he doesn't want to be seen. Always willing to help others despite his skittish nature, he just wants to feel like a valued member of the team and not just their less-than-helpful tag-along.</p><p>Domino Ivory (17)<br/>The leader. A bat with a strong sense of justice rivaled only by her love of adventure, she's highly skilled in her line of work. Some of her talents are natural, others have been trained over the course of her entire life. Reckless and impulsive, she struggles with the technical side of things and rarely exercises caution.</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Act 1: Chasing Chaos<br/>As the world struggles to deal with the aftermath of Sonic's disappearance and Eggman's victory, two thirds of an adventuring team seek out their missing leader. Elsewhere, said leader is dealing with her own problems.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One month ago, our world fell to ruin. These days, you’ll find the streets are empty aside from prowling badniks, and screens everywhere broadcasting the will of our self-proclaimed overlord. It seems like something out of a particularly bad sci-fi film, except for the part where we’re living it.</p><p>Still, the signs of life are present if you know where to look. For the most part, civilians have long since scattered or sought refuge in safer places, while the organization known as the Resistance fights to take our world back. Not everyone is one or the other, though - some prefer to work alone for some reason or another, and others still have personal missions to complete.<br/><br/>When my partner vanished, I took off after her with the only lead she left behind. Now I’m seeking out the place she was heading - the Resistance - to try and find some answers.</p><p>~ Skylar the Wolf</p><hr/><p>[one. Skylar]<br/><br/>The wolf darted across rooftops and leapt to the next with ease, thanks to her boots. They didn’t look like anything special, aside from the insignia stitched on the sides - a cloud outlined in white, with her initials inside - but that was her best-kept secret. Everything she carried, everything she wore, carried hidden capabilities. Her boots couldn’t quite let her fly, the way Domino could with her wings, but she could run faster, jump higher and farther. It let her keep up, in her own way, when she couldn’t take her plane along.<br/><br/>And she <em>really</em> couldn’t risk taking her plane right now. None of her models had ever been made for combat, and with the mad doctor’s robots above and below, this was the safest place to be. Especially considering her only weapon was an iron bar she’d picked up in the last town she passed through, and she wasn’t entirely sure how to use it - she’d never been good at hand-to-hand combat, with or without a weapon, but there hadn’t been time to put together anything more suited to her skillset.<br/><br/>The searchlights above were growing ever closer, and Skylar hissed in frustration. Resigned to her fate, she ran to edge of the roof and judged the fall distance. When had she gotten up so high, exactly? Well, it didn’t matter how she’d gotten up here - what mattered now was getting down, preferably in one piece. Then she remembered her boots - she couldn’t fly, but she <em>could</em> let them slow her fall. And so she did, slowly descending to the alleyway.<br/><br/>It was then that she heard a familiar click, followed swiftly by a familiar voice.<br/><br/>“Finally. I thought you’d never come back down,” the voice spoke through her headset.<br/><br/>Skylar sighed. It was her partner’s headset, but it wasn’t her voice coming through. It was way too early, or too late, or too <em>whatever</em> time it was supposed to be right now to be dealing with this. “Lucas. Why do you have Domino’s gear, and where are you?”<br/><br/>This time, the voice sounded from behind her as well as in her ears, and she spun around to meet its owner. “I took the stuff she left when you took off. You think I’m letting you look for my sister by yourself? It’s dangerous, and we should stick together.”<br/><br/>For the first time since she’d left, Skylar stood face-to-face with another person. Lucas met her eyes like he was issuing a challenge, and she looked him over as thoroughly as she’d ever looked at anything. She’d thought someone else would look after him, or that maybe Domino had sent him somewhere, because she couldn’t find him before she left - that must have been when he took Domino’s old gear.<br/><br/>She couldn’t say it didn’t suit him, though the headset was a little too big and didn’t fit quite right. It was an older model, something she’d made to resemble her own, which meant that Domino had likely taken her current gear. That made sense, considering she’d left to fight a war, but it made her lack of communication all the more concerning.<br/><br/>“Fine,” she decided after a few moments of silent contemplation. It was better to just let him tag along anyway, knowing he was just going to keep on following her if she refused. Then she’d had to deal with that, on top of everything else - if Lucas had inherited one thing from his sister, it would have to be stubbornness. “If you have any leads, I’d love to hear them.”<br/><br/>“Nothing solid,” Lucas shrugged. “I only know what you do - she left to join the Resistance. So our best bet is to keep going til we see them in action, right?”<br/><br/>“Precisely,” Skylar nodded, leading the way. This time she kept close to the ground, aware of her companion’s presence - Lucas didn’t fly, with or without wings, and she wasn’t going to be the one to try and force him. They kept to the shadows, moving slower than she would have liked, but slow progress was still progress. And, if she was being honest, she felt a little better now that she wasn’t alone anymore.<br/><br/><em>Wherever you are, Domino</em>, she thought, <em>I swear on the seven Chaos Emeralds that we’ll find you</em>.</p><hr/><p>[one. Lucas]<br/><br/>When Lucas had said they needed to look for a place where the Resistance was in action, he hadn’t meant to walk right into the middle <em>of</em> the action - but there they were, in the thick of battle. Skylar swinging their opponents aside with her iron bar, up until Lucas jumped at the wrong moment and she hit <em>him</em> with it - sending him flying directly into another badnik.<br/><br/>As he landed, slightly dazed, they exchanged a glance. “Too much like flying,” he muttered.<br/><br/>“Sorry,” Skylar apologized, waiting for him to move out of range before she resumed her assault. “Won’t happen again!”<br/><br/>Lucas, however, had an idea - Skylar wasn’t used to fighting <em>by herself</em> , but he’d seen her use a baseball bat before. Usually to do something similar to what they’d just managed by accident, but if they had to improvise… “Batter up,” he called, throwing a medium-sized rock toward her. She hit it easily, sending it flying into yet another badnik, and he kept going with varying sizes of rock as she called for specific pitches.<br/><br/>Eventually, once the chaos died down and the badniks were defeated - for now, anyway - someone from the fray approached them, weapon at their side. “Are you new recruits for the Resistance?”<br/><br/>Skylar opened her mouth, presumably to deny any association, but Lucas came out from his hiding place behind her and interrupted. “...Not exactly Our teammate Domino, she left to join up with you guys, but we haven’t heard from her. So we started looking ourselves, and this was the only lead we had.”<br/><br/>The Resistance fighter frowned. “We don’t keep that sort of info on hand, and even if we did - we couldn't just hand it out like that. But you guys handled yourselves pretty well out there, you know. You thinking about joining up? Even if your friend didn’t make it this far, there’s no denying that we could use that sort of skill.”<br/><br/>Looking up to Skylar, Lucas elbowed her. “What do you say?”<br/><br/>“...It’s the best way to find her,” Skylar admitted after a moment, seemingly resigned. “We’ll do it.”</p><hr/><p>[one. Domino]<br/><br/>[One Month Earlier]<br/><br/>In truth, Domino had made it to her destination - though she’d made it there a little too late. The wreckage made it clear that she’d missed the action, but any disappointment she might have felt dissipated as those who’d been in hiding began to emerge. A small number, she noticed - the rest, she supposed, had likely fled.<br/><br/>As one of the townsfolk approached, she tilted her head. “So… Where’s everyone else? Looks like I was a little late to the party.”<br/><br/>The stranger, a lavender sparrow, frowned. “There <em>is</em> no everyone else. This is everything that’s left." There was a pause, and then a suspicious look. "...Are you here to take the rest? We won’t give it to you!”<br/><br/>Domino raised her hands, a near-universal gesture for peace. Thankfully, it seemed to calm the sparrow enough that she didn’t jump to attack. “Whoa, whoa. No, I’m here to help - can you fill me in on what happened?”<br/><br/>She listened as the sparrow - Lacy - explained what she’d missed. It had started simple enough, seeing as settlements that were large enough were always in danger from something or other, but something had gone wrong. Thieves and villains of all sorts weren’t uncommon in cities, but usually someone was there to deal with them - and someone <em>had</em> been there.<br/><br/>But something had gone wrong, though no one knew <em>what</em> , exactly, and Sonic the Hedgehog - a name that honestly felt more like a legend, with all he’d accomplished and how powerful all the stories made him seem - was <em>dead</em>, or at least assumed as such, and the rest of his allies scattered. All that was left now was the wreckage and the survivors.<br/><br/>“I’m sorry, can you run that one by me again? Simple words, maybe? I’m not sure I understood you correctly.”<br/><br/>“Doctor Eggman killed Sonic the Hedgehog,” Lacy repeated. “You heard it right the first time.”<br/><br/>Domino took a deep breath. That was a thought to process later. Immediate concerns first, looming horror about things that could kill legendary heroes later. If all the life-threatening and generally dangerous things she'd experienced in her life had taught her one thing, it was how to compartmentalize her problems, at least temporarily. “Am I right in assuming you guys are gonna stick around here?”<br/><br/>It must have come out a little harsher than intended, considering the defensive tone of Lacy's response. “It’s our home. Where else would we go? Though I don’t know if we have the necessary forces to defend ourselves if we’re attacked again...”<br/><br/>She honestly hadn’t stopped to consider that. The sort of loyalty to a place that was necessary to stay, to defend it to the end... She'd never felt that. But she didn’t want to see these people get hurt if they intended to stay here, and she had an idea of how to help with that, at least. “I’ll stick around to help for a little while. Get anyone who can either use a weapon or who's willing to learn - I’m not so great with the fixing side of things, so I won't be able to help you rebuild, but I can teach you guys a thing or two about defending yourselves.”<br/><br/>To demonstrate, she swung her hammer at the motionless form of a robot, smashing it to pieces.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Act 1; The Transient Nature Of Things</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Skylar and Lucas settle into life as part of the Resistance, while Domino contemplates the purpose of her own search.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Deep down, I feel like we all just want to be a part of something. I got lucky, I guess, because I've been a part of so many things - but it doesn't always feel like you're really a part of them, does it? Sometimes you're just an outsider in your own club.</p><p>~ Lucas Ivory</p><hr/><p>[two. Skylar]</p><p>They'd been with the Resistance for almost a month now, and Skylar had found something that suited her talents almost immediately. As it turned out, her technical skills were in short supply among the Resistance - they needed gear made and repaired, armor and weapons and everything in between, and not many had the necessary skills to do so. That made sense, really, given what she'd seen of their recruiting methods. The folks who made it this far tended to be more suited to combat than technical work.<br/><br/>She wasn't the only one on the job, but she was the one with the most experience - a lifetime of making and breaking and fixing things had seen to that - and that, combined with her own perfectionism and tendency to get lost in her work, led to her taking on a lot of the more difficult tasks.<br/><br/>On the rare occasion that she wasn't working with the soldiers' gear, though, she was studying a set of schematics. Wispons were commonplace among the Resistance's ranks, but they were limited to one at a time. A single type of wisp for a single type of wispon. The idea, though - if she could fully realize it somehow - would eliminate that completely, allowing for greater versatility. So she took the unsalvageable weapons, the things too far gone to fix, and tinkered away at them in hopes of fusing them into something new and different.<br/><br/>First she'd tried to combine all of them at once, though she shelved that plan after it quite literally blew up in her face. Twice. But she was sure that she was on the right track - just overly confident in her own abilities.<br/><br/>The second test was with just two wispons at a time, and the results of that experiment were far more promising. So she kept going, making more and more prototypes, trying to piece together which pairs would complement one another. It would still be some time before she had anything ready for field testing, but she was making progress.<br/><br/>She color coded them based on the wisps, unable to test beyond that at present but saving each prototype for a later date: red and ivory, green and violet, yellow and indigo, green and ivory. Four was enough to start, at least, and it would take long enough to get them to work - and to do so safely, without breaking. Others surrounded them, in varying states of progress, but hastily-scrawled notes labeled both their progress percentages and that they weren't currently being worked on.<br/><br/>It was certainly safe to say she had her work cut out for her. And while she still wasn’t happy about dealing with the Resistance for her own reasons, at least she was doing something she loved.<br/><br/>(Lucas stopped by fairly often, reminding her that she was helping people. It made her feel better in the moment, but that thought often seemed to slip from her mind as soon as he left.)</p><hr/><p>[two. Lucas]</p><p>Though Lucas was eager to help, he was also aware that he didn’t have many skills that the Resistance would find useful. He couldn’t fly, and he was more defense than anything in combat situations apart from his attempts to avoid them - really, the only thing distinguishing him from the civilian refugees was his violet wisp companion and the wispon he tried not to display. Still, he was mistaken for one of them more than once early on, mostly because of his small size and the fact that he <em> was </em> still much younger than most of them.<br/><br/>(Still, it didn’t feel entirely fair - there <em> were </em> members of the organization that were younger than he was, after all. Then again, maybe they’d proven themselves some other way?)<br/><br/>After the first few days of awkward exchanges that had turned to helping Skylar with her work, he’d taken to the shadows. They were familiar, at least, no matter where he went - he could slip into the shadows of a room, keep quiet, and simply observe. He gathered information that way, even if most of it was useless, and if there was something as safe as being invisible it was being well-informed.<br/><br/>Mostly, he lurked - whether in crowded halls and empty rooms or in Skylar’s makeshift workshop. No one bothered him much, even when he wasn’t hiding from them, and he wondered if he was doing so without thinking.<br/><br/>He listened for information about Domino, but it seemed that she never had made it to the Resistance. He didn’t hear anything about her, or about anyone that sounded like they could maybe be her, and he certainly didn’t see her in the crowds he watched.<br/><br/>Every so often, though, someone would catch on to his presence - his wisp would give him away, or he would stop concentrating, or he’d simply fall asleep in whatever corner he’d settled in for the past several hours. It didn’t do much to improve his confidence, but it was nice to have a bit of company now and then - the soldiers were quick to move on, but the kids that caught him asleep or distracted were usually willing to sit and talk.<br/><br/>It felt nice, to help take someone’s mind off of everything around them. It distracted him from everything too, which definitely helped, but what helped more was that he didn’t feel the need to impress them. They already thought he was cool - he wasn’t <em> that </em> much older than they were, but he was part of the Resistance ‘for real’, as they put it, and he could basically disappear when he wanted to.<br/><br/>By the one-month mark, he was more or less the unofficial babysitter of the entire Resistance - he told them stories of adventures he’d been on, or his sister and Skylar’s earlier escapades, or other tales he’d picked up along the way, and for the most part he managed to keep them out of the way of the actual soldiers.<br/><br/>Really, it was kind of nice to feel appreciated.</p><hr/><p>[two. Domino]<br/><br/>Two months into her travels, Domino was starting to wonder if it was worth it to keep going. She’d yet to run into the Resistance, always a little too late to any town they passed through, and it was beginning to feel like she just wasn’t meant to join up with them. It didn’t help that she stopped each time, as she had in the first town, to help the remaining citizens defend what remained of their homes. When there were citizens left to help, at least.<br/><br/>She preferred the open wilderness, with grass and trees stretching out toward the horizon, but she passed less and less of it as she went on. That was probably a good sign, though only in the context of finding what she was looking for.<br/><br/>Maybe she shouldn’t have left in the first place, or at least not alone - but she’d insisted, even after Skylar refused to join her, and she’d insisted that Lucas stay behind. She was beginning to regret that, but then again, she was beginning to regret a lot of things. She wondered if they would be waiting for her, if she were to turn around and go home.<br/><br/>Probably not, she supposed. They rarely stayed in one place for more than a week or two. They were likely off on their own by now. The thought of the two of them off on their own, separate adventures made her heart ache, but she pressed on despite that. She had no way of finding them now, anyway, unless she miraculously stumbled across them - her echolocation couldn't reach anywhere near that far, and though the gear Skylar had made for her still worked, their communication devices were fairly short-range.<br/><br/>They’d been working out plans to track down a solution to that problem - “a permanent, centralized power source”, according to Skylar - when the war started. From there, everything had spiraled, and now Domino found herself sitting on top of a tree, in the middle of the only green space she’d seen in days.<br/><br/>Two months hadn’t yet gotten her to the Resistance, so she figured two minutes to take a break wouldn’t hurt. As she did so, she looked at her arm - a golden band wrapped around it, the first treasure she’d ever found. Gently, she traced over it with her other hand. It wasn’t the same as having Skylar and her matching band at her side, but it reminded her that they were still connected, no matter the distance between them.<br/><br/>It was time to get going, she supposed. Even that small, nearly-nonexistent chance that she might run into her teammates on the road somewhere wouldn’t exist if she stayed sitting around too much longer.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Act 1; The Ties That Bind</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Skylar and Lucas test a new set of prototype wispons. Domino travels through places she's been before, now in an entirely different light.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>No matter how far apart you are, memories and experiences can bind people together. Even if you haven't seen each other in ages - even if you never see each other again - you'll always have the experiences you shared with someone else. Hold on to those memories and those experiences, and they'll always be right there with you.<br/><br/>~ Domino Ivory</p><hr/><p>[three. Skylar]<br/><br/>By the three month mark, Skylar had finalized the first two prototype wispons - the green/violet and green/ivory combinations. She’d even found an ivory wisp willing to volunteer alongside her own green companion, and she’d reached the part of the process where she’d actually be testing the first one in combat - albeit a controlled, one-sided sort of combat. Target practice, really.<br/><br/>She’d made several prototypes for each of the two over the past month, including the one she was testing now. She'd tried both handheld and thrown wispons, though the current model was her favorite - she’d made adjustments to her gloves, adding metallic rings to the tops and wiring the tech through the palms. If it worked, it would be both effective and subtle - if it didn’t, then she still had a cool new pair of gloves, provided this set didn’t break. The most important detail was that these prototypes in particular could theoretically run on non-wisp-related energy, though she hadn't yet found a potential substitute.<br/><br/>“Places, you two,” she told the wisps, holding up her hands. “It’s finally time to test these out. Let’s hope for the best, yeah?”<br/><br/>Once they’d taken their places in the rings (quite cleverly hidden, in her opinion, by the usual shape of the sort of gloves she often wore), she took a moment to stretch. Then, experimentally, she made a gesture toward the cardboard box on the table, focusing on her intention, and her eyes lit up as a strip of lightning shot from her palm. Test one was a success, then - but that didn’t make the entire project a success just yet. There was more to do.<br/><br/>Next, she aimed both of her palms toward the ground, and began to rise off of it - floating first one foot in the air, then two, then three. She stopped there, reminding herself that the ‘workshop’ was rather small to begin with and that she didn’t want to break anything, but - at least in this controlled environment - the hovering capabilities were fully functional.<br/><br/>The best test by far was the first combination test, utilizing the lightning and shockwave capabilities at the same time to attack multiple targets - a counter for an ambush, ideally. It drained the energy of both the user and the wisps much faster than the other effects, though, so it wasn’t something to rely on consistently.<br/><br/>The only thing, really, that didn’t work as intended was an experimental combination. Trying to use the conduction of electricity and the force of the shockwaves, she wanted to make it possible to do something she thought of as a lightning dash - not quite light-speed and not quite teleportation, and in fact sacrificing some of the speed that the ivory wispon provided on its own, but faster than regular movement or flight and with the power to attack from midair. But this first test had sent her flying in various directions, slamming into the walls and knocking over everything except her intended targets, and the only thing she’d successfully zapped was herself.<br/><br/>Still, overall, she’d call the project a tentative success. Which meant it was time to move on to testing the second prototype.</p><hr/><p>[three. Lucas]<br/><br/>Lucas was telling a slightly embellished story to a small group of children when Skylar finally stumbled across him. He waved her over as he finished the story, a simple enough tale about one of the first times they’d let him tag along on an adventure, and he grinned at her. “Taking a break?”<br/><br/>“I’m not,” Skylar informed him. “You are, though. C’mon. Sorry kids, but I’ve gotta steal Lucas for a bit.”<br/><br/>One, a young cat with white-and-gray fur, pouted. “But he was gonna tell us more about your adventures!”<br/><br/>Lucas ruffled the tuft of hair on the cat’s head. “Don’t worry about me, Frost. Gotta go on more adventures to tell you about, right?” That seemed to satisfy them, anyway. He surveyed the small group that had more or less become his responsibility, and gave one last set of instructions. “But only if you’re on your best behavior. Listen to the other recruits, and don’t run off on your own, okay?” Once they nodded their approval, he waved over one of the more recent recruits and requested they keep an eye on them.<br/><br/>Satisfied, he nodded to Skylar, who led him in the direction of her workshop. She looked at him curiously. “Does that actually work on them? They listen to you?”<br/><br/>Lucas grinned at her, a hint of a mischievous glint in his eyes. “I think it helps that they think I know basically everything, but yeah. What did you need me for, anyway?”<br/><br/>Skylar was silent, at least until they reached the workshop. Once they entered, she closed the door and threw a pair of gloves at him. “Try those on,” she ordered, then pointed at a quarterstaff leaning against the wall.<br/><br/>He did as she asked, finding they fit perfectly - that explained why she’d demanded a spare pair of his the other day. They didn’t feel like anything particularly special, though, and he picked up the quarterstaff as instructed. It wasn’t anything impressive on the surface either, a metal staff with odd-looking caps on the ends. “What’s it for?”<br/><br/>“Controlled experiment,” she replied. “New prototype wispon - the gloves let you control it silently. If it works, consider it an early birthday present. If it doesn’t, hopefully it won’t explode.”<br/><br/>It was probably telling that this was far from the most concerning thing she’d ever said. It was probably <em> more </em> telling that he didn’t question that answer. “Got it. What do you want me to do?”<br/><br/>“It’s set to work with green and violet wisps - I thought those were the ones that would work well with you. If your buddy’s willing to help us test it, anyway - mine’s already volunteered.”<br/><br/>Lucas hummed in acknowledgement. That must have been what the odd-looking caps were for, then. “Well. What do you say, Vi?” The wisp chirped something he didn't actually understand in reply, and swiftly vanished into the cap. Skylar’s green wisp companion followed without being asked.<br/><br/>“Test number one: shockwave capability,” Skylar instructed. That was a definite success, though the unexpected force of energy sent her flying into the wall yet again. “That’s gonna be great in the field, as long as you remember to point it at the <em>actual target</em>,” she muttered, picking herself up.<br/><br/>“Sorry.”<br/><br/>“Don’t worry about it. Second test: magnet draw.” This was another success, though perhaps too much so. The magnetic field certainly drew in metallic objects - but that included her own equipment. “Tone down the field a bit, got it,” she scribbled on her notepad. “You’re probably not going to end up on the front lines, anyway - a small scale is better for avoiding detection, don’t you think? For things like recon and retrieval.”<br/><br/>“You’re the engineer, not me," Lucas reminded her. "But that sounds right - a bigger field affects more stuff, and makes it easier to notice, right?”<br/><br/>“Right. Don’t worry about the hover capabilities, by the way - yours doesn’t have them. I figured it would be redundant, especially considering the last ability. If it works, you can teleport short distances - you’ll have to recharge between uses, though.”<br/><br/>This test was far more thorough than the others. That was mostly because Skylar insisted on testing each variable once the initial concept was successful - the maximum distance of teleportation, the minimum amount of disturbance on either end, how precisely they could control where he’d end up. It was meant to be subtle, after all, not paint a target on his back.<br/><br/>He was pretty sure it was well after midnight when she finally let him go, taking the gloves and prototype back with the promise to give him a new and improved version later. As he collapsed on his cot, he wondered if she’d made Domino go through this with all her past prototypes. Could that be counted as sibling bonding? Even if they weren’t suffering through it at the same time?<br/><br/>His last thought before falling asleep was that he’d have to ask about it when he saw her again.</p><hr/><p>[three. Domino]<br/><br/>As she traveled farther and farther, Domino found that she ran into fewer and fewer pockets of civilization. In the past three weeks, she’d only encountered one group, and they’d been travelers like her. Rather than seeking out the Resistance, though, they were seeking a place far enough away that they’d be safe. She’d pointed them toward a village that had still been standing when she passed through a month prior, far enough from other settlements that it had remained largely untouched.<br/><br/>Now, though, she passed over yet another wasteland. It all seemed to blend together after a while, the metallic landscape stretching out as far as the green fields they had once been. She was moving faster now that there was nothing but empty wasteland, true, but something stung in her heart with every ghost town she passed through.<br/><br/>She’d been to some of these places before. Bustling marketplaces where she and her team had once bought foreign fruit after a successful treasure hunt, now reduced to little more than empty streets lined with rubble. The only things that lived there now, it seemed, were particularly aggressive robots, and it made her feel worse - adding to the wasteland around her with every single victory.<br/><br/>There was one particularly sobering moment where, beneath a pile of rocks, she’d found a faded postcard from the city she was passing through. It was a pretty picture, and she’d tucked it into her pocket. She’d started doing that a lot, especially with postcards and trinkets. She wanted to remember what those places had once been. Maybe someday they’d look like that again, even as distant as such a future felt now.<br/><br/>Maybe she’d just been alone too long, and none of her observations really meant anything at all.<br/><br/>Either way, when the wasteland of metal finally gave way to green fields she found herself stopping to rest, content to sit for a while with the handful of plants that still grew there. Dandelions, mostly. She liked gardening, loved plants - Skylar did too, but they'd always disagreed on the topic of weeds. Domino was happy to let them be, most of the time, though once they came into the actual garden she would begrudgingly sit down to pull them out by hand. Skylar, on the other hand, was the type to stop and pull weeds out of the cracks in the sidewalk.<br/><br/>(Lucas had always claimed to be neutral on the subject, content to either pick or leave the weeds depending on which of them he was accompanying at the time.)<br/><br/>Picking dandelions, though, was something they agreed on. The fact that they were pretty much entirely edible had led to a great deal of spring afternoons spent picking them to cook later or to make into tea. Or, in Domino's case, just enjoying the look on someone's face as she picked and ate a whole dandelion right in front of them - the memory made her laugh, even now.<br/><br/>It was summer now, and the flowers had long since turned to seeds, but Domino found herself picking one anyway. Gently blowing the seeds out on the breeze and hoping that the flowers continued to thrive in the coming seasons, she made her wish - to see her teammates again soon.<br/><br/>As the last of the seeds left her line of sight, she stood once more. This was one wish she'd have to make into reality on her own.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I promise we're finally nearing the end of the set-up phase - stuff should actually start happening next chapter. I'm working with an outline now, and I have a vague set up of three acts with a handful of interludes thrown in. I'd like to apologize for the variation in section sizes in this chapter, but I also can't promise that it won't happen again. I aim for them to be a certain length, and while I try not to go under it I'm a little more flexible when it comes to going over.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Act 1; No More Heroes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Skylar and Lucas ponder the past and the future. Domino reflects on why she keeps fighting.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Almost to the end of the first act!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It doesn't matter how hard you work, it doesn't matter how much good you manage to do - if you don't stop to take care of yourself every now and then, you'll eventually crash and burn.<br/>
<br/>
~ Skylar the Wolf</p>
<hr/><p>[four. Skylar]<br/>
<br/>
Approaching four months since joining up with the Resistance, Skylar was as hard at work as she’d ever been. Finalizing the finalized prototypes, tinkering with their capabilities even more, all while slowly developing the others when the found a few spare moments to work on them. However, with her focus split between repairs and her prototypes, she’d fallen back into her old bad habits. Namely, neglecting her own health - sleepless nights and forgetting to eat had become the norm for her, as they often did when she got too into a project.<br/>
<br/>
It was Lucas that finally snapped her out of it, as much as anyone ever managed to. And really, he hadn’t snapped her out of it so much as he'd simply tricked her into taking a break.<br/>
<br/>
“You’re needed elsewhere,” he'd said out of nowhere one afternoon, leaning against the door frame and trying far too hard to look official. It might have actually worked, if he wasn't trying it on someone who had known him his entire life. “Follow me.”<br/>
<br/>
Reluctantly, on the off chance that whatever it was Lucas wanted <em>was</em> actually more important and with several hesitant glances back at her works-in-progress, Skylar followed him through the door. He led her outside, sitting on the ground and gesturing for her to join him.<br/>
<br/>
<em>What a waste of time,</em> she thought. There was too much to do, no time to spare for distractions like this. “This isn’t actually work-related, is it?”<br/>
<br/>
“Actually, it kind of is,” Lucas shrugged. “You need to take a break. And then, when we’re done out here, you probably need to take a nap or something.”<br/>
<br/>
“I <em>need</em> to get back to work,” Skylar muttered.<br/>
<br/>
“When was the last time you slept?” Lucas asked sharply, staring her down with an intensity she'd forgotten he could manage.<br/>
<br/>
She winced, and found that she couldn’t meet his eyes. He looked like… He <em>sounded</em> like… Well, like his sister.<br/>
<br/>
Against her better judgment, she sat down next to him without saying a word, knowing she'd lost an argument that hadn't even started.<br/>
<br/>
He took her silence as agreement, and she supposed it might as well have been. “Exactly. You need to rest, you know? Recharge.”<br/>
<br/>
“You sound just like Domino, did you know that?” she asked, chancing a glance at his face.<br/>
<br/>
Lucas shrugged, neutral expression unwavering. “Well, she’s still not here, so I guess someone’s got to.”<br/>
<br/>
“...Do you ever think about that? How long it’s been?” Skylar felt her voice break as she spoke, but she found that she couldn’t stop. “What if she’s just… Gone?”<br/>
<br/>
The answer was instantaneous, unfaltering in its certainty. “She’s not.” <br/>
<br/>
“How do you know that?” Skylar asked him, looking away to hide the tears that threatened to roll down her face.<br/>
<br/>
“I don’t. But I do believe it,” Lucas told her softly. “You’ve gotta believe in something, right? Gotta have faith, somehow.”<br/>
<br/>
It made sense, when she thought about it. But she hadn’t had a lot of time for thoughts like that, at least not lately, and right now she had a hard time believing in anything at all. “Like how some of the Resistance still believes Sonic is out there.”<br/>
<br/>
“Yeah. Exactly like that,” he nodded. “He’s their hero.”<br/>
<br/>
Skylar hummed in acknowledgement. “...She’s my hero, too.”<br/>
<br/>
Lucas shuffled just a bit closer to her, eyes focused on the setting sun. “Yeah. She’ll come back. Just give it time.”</p>
<hr/><p>[four. Lucas]<br/>
<br/>
They were out on the field for the first time, testing out the final versions of the dual wispons, when Lucas yanked Skylar into the shadows he was using as cover. As she opened her mouth, he covered it with a gloved hand, focused intently on their surroundings. A good three minutes passed like that, both of them keeping perfectly still, until he finally judged it to be safe.<br/>
<br/>
When he finally removed his hand, Skylar didn’t say anything, but he could hear every rude word she was thinking in the glare she gave him. “Sorry,” he whispered. “No time to warn you before they got you.”<br/>
<br/>
“...Just because you’re right doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Skylar muttered.<br/>
<br/>
Lucas smiled wryly at her. “Does anyone, really?”<br/>
<br/>
She shook her head. “Yeah, guess not.”<br/>
<br/>
“...Can I ask you something?”<br/>
<br/>
“Shoot.”<br/>
<br/>
It was something that had bothered him for a long time now. Since well before they'd joined up with the Resistance. “Why do you hate the Resistance so much? We’re just trying to help people, right?”<br/>
<br/>
Skylar considered the question for a few long moments. “...Tell you what. We get out of this in one piece, and I’ll tell you all about that.”<br/>
<br/>
“I’ll hold you to that,” he promised her, and she grinned at him as they returned to the action.<br/>
<br/>
Two days later, they were safely back at the Resistance headquarters, their mission having been a solid success. True to his word, Lucas had cornered Skylar in her workshop. He leaned against the locked door, twirling his staff and waiting for her to speak.<br/>
<br/>
Skylar looked him over, clearly resigned. “You must really want those answers, huh...? Okay, then. Just... Let me warn you, first. This isn’t going to be one of the fun stories.”<br/>
<br/>
“I figured as much,” he admitted, sitting on the floor. The wisps gathered around him, listening just as intently.<br/>
<br/>
“My parents were travelers,” she began. “Oh, they lived in our village, some of the time. Hard to raise a family on the road, or so they said. But the rest of the time they were traveling merchants. When I was a few years younger than you, they left for a neighboring town to gather some supplies - they brought me along, because they thought it would be safe and because they wanted me to take over someday. On the way, though, they were ambushed by mercenaries - they went by some variation of 'the resistance', I've forgotten exactly what it was - that mistook them for a pair of high-priority criminals. ...And, well. I suppose nobody noticed me, hiding in the bushes. Not until after it was too late, when they realized they'd got the wrong targets.”<br/>
<br/>
As Skylar turned away, not looking at him, Lucas remained silent. He wasn’t going to interrupt.<br/>
<br/>
“It all happened so fast… One moment they were there, and then they weren’t. The people who… They brought me home, and that’s the only good thing I can say,” she whispered. “Maybe it’s not fair to judge the Resistance for something they didn’t do, for something that happened such a long time ago. But I didn’t want anything to do with resistances or mercenaries after that.” After a moment, she turned back to face him. “You know, Domino wanted to join up with a mercenary team once. We argued over it, said things we didn’t mean that we apologized for eventually. In the end, though, it didn’t matter all that much. Too much organized <em> anything </em> is a problem for her, and she dropped the idea almost as quickly as she'd latched on to it in the first place.”<br/>
<br/>
“She’d be losing her mind if she were stuck here,” he mused, looking around the organized chaos of the workshop.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh, she’d be out there on the front lines, disregarding orders left and right. You know how she is - she gets high on danger, while the rest of us have the common sense not to run directly at it. ...Just between you and me, though? I don’t hate the Resistance. Not now, anyway. If I really hated them, hated what they were standing for, I wouldn’t be here, fixing their weapons and fighting for their cause.”</p>
<hr/><p>[four. Domino]<br/>
<br/>
Five months of nearly uninterrupted travel were wearing Domino down even further. She’d been chasing any trace of a signal that Skylar's gear could provide, but every time so far had turned out to be some sort of false alarm. She was lonely, she was exhausted, and she was running out of reasons to keep running.<br/>
<br/>
Still, she kept going despite that, driven by something like spite and the desperate desire to see her teammates again. There was a photograph, faded and worn, that she kept alongside the trinkets she'd gathered - it was a picture of the three of them, taken some time before she left. When she thought like that, started to believe that she'd run out of reasons to keep going, she'd stop for a moment and pull out the picture.<br/>
<br/>
She was in the center, grinning wickedly at the camera with one arm loosely draped around Skylar on her left. Skylar, whose smile said she was genuinely happy to be there, that she really, honestly loved these people that she lived and worked with. Domino's other arm held Lucas to her side, who was visibly reluctant but grinning nervously all the same. As much a part of things as the rest of them.<br/>
<br/>
She wanted her brother back. She wanted her partner back. She wanted her <em>family</em> back. But there was no time for regrets, no time to dwell on <em>what-ifs</em> and <em>maybes</em>.<br/>
<br/>
No, there was no time to dwell on her own regrets, not when she knew perfectly well that if she gave up now she was giving up even the slimmest chance of ever seeing them again. So she kept going, for the chance to be reunited with her teammates - but also for the sake of something else, something that was at times harder to quantify.<br/>
<br/>
With another badnik smashed to pieces beneath her hammer, she surveyed the latest wasteland. They were all around, metallic symbols of a man gone mad, and she promised herself that would fight them for as long as she was needed. Knowing that if she stopped, if she wavered even a moment too long, then these soulless machines would simply carry on as though she was never there at all.<br/>
<br/>
They didn't stop for heroes, didn't stop for legends, didn't stop for anything. So she couldn't stop, either.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is the end of the set-up, pretty definitively. Next time, hopefully: Plot! Action! Heartfelt reunions!</p><p>For more in-depth character profiles than the ones at the beginning of this fic, look <a>here.</a></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Act 1; Chasing Chaos</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>[five. Skylar]<br/><br/>Five months after joining the Resistance, Skylar had come to honestly appreciate everything they were fighting for. She was out on the field more often now, ever since the dual wispons were completed - she and Lucas were a highly skilled team, trusted to succeed with delicate tasks. Things that were reliant on stealth and innovation more than brute force - infiltration, retrieving sensitive information and objects - were brought to them.<br/><br/>So when the commander requested her and Lucas to meet with him, she’d expected something along those lines. Infiltrating a base to gather valuable intel, maybe. What she did <em> not </em> expect was for Knuckles the Echidna, commander of the Resistance, to look her in the eye as she walked in the door and say: “Sonic is alive.”<br/><br/>With those three words, everything shifted. “How is that even possible?”<br/><br/>“He’s on the Death Egg. No time to explain right now, but I'm pretty sure you already know what I’m going to ask. Are you up for it?”<br/><br/>Skylar chanced a glance at Lucas. They looked back at the commander, and nodded once. “You can count on us,” she answered for them both. <br/><br/>“Great. So here’s what we’re going to do: you two are going to <em> borrow </em> a shuttle, head on up there, and break him out. Rouge will fill you in on the details while you’re moving, there’s no time to waste.”<br/><br/>True to the commander’s word, the Resistance’s resident spy filled them in on the situation as they moved out. The concept of suffering through prolonged isolation, of being tortured and having to watch as your world was destroyed, unable to do anything at all… It was unbelievable.<br/><br/>Sonic had spent <em> six months </em> like that, presumed dead by almost everyone.<br/><br/>They hadn’t even been looking for him. Why would they, when most believed there was nothing left to look for?<br/><br/>Yeah. They were going to break him out of there. No question about that.<br/><br/>“You have to hurry,” the commander’s voice registered in her ear. “We have one chance to get this right.”<br/><br/>Skylar followed Lucas’ lead as they slipped into the spaceport. He knew how to remain undetected, how to slip from shadow to shadow like he was nothing more than an illusion, and she decidedly did not. Instead, she used the skills she did have - she trailed slightly behind, while anything that came close to spotting him was met with an electric shock. Enough to short-circuit the robots, without destroying them - <em> that </em> would capture too much attention, if pieces of metal began to appear seemingly out of nowhere.<br/><br/>But a robot here and there just stopping in place for a few minutes? Well, <em> that </em> could just be a random error. Especially if it only happened once or twice. Too much of any disturbance risked attention, after all.<br/><br/>“Almost there,” Lucas whispered into his headset. “Skylar - cover me, then jump on board. There’s a bot to your left that will definitely spot me if I move now. Can you do something about that?”<br/><br/>Another well-placed shock and the robot was still. “That’s not going to last more than a couple minutes,” she warned, leaping up after him. “We have to move. <em> Now </em> .”<br/><br/>The flight was quiet, the atmosphere on the shuttle tense, until Rouge spoke through their headsets once more. “They know you’re coming, now,” Rouge warned. “Stay on your toes. It looks like the prisoners are being held in some kind of internment facility - it seems likely that Sonic is there, too.”<br/><br/>They were swiftly approaching their target. It was now or never.</p><hr/><p>[five. Lucas]<br/><br/>As he prepared to face his mission, Lucas found that he felt anxious. That wasn’t anything new, he always felt anxious, but there was an unfamiliar edge to it now. The knowledge that lives were counting on him, that failure was decisively not an option. That he was still so afraid of failing, that he felt like any success he’d found was little more than an accident.<br/><br/>He looked to Skylar for some sort of guidance, reassurance, but all she had to offer him was a small smile. “It’ll be okay,” she promised, and he didn’t believe it for a second. He was pretty sure that she didn’t, either.<br/><br/>Still. It didn't hurt to pretend, he supposed. He could pretend he believed that everything would be fine, and maybe someday it would be true.<br/><br/>“Right,” he murmured in response, stepping silently off the shuttle. He couldn’t stay here, had to put some distance between him and it. He twirled his staff, cold metal in his hands allowing him to ground himself, and vanished. “Somewhere to your left, I think,” he whispered before she could ask for his coordinates. “Not sure how far - max distance?”<br/><br/>“Cleanup crew on your tail,” Skylar assured him, and with the knowledge that he was firmly in her sights he took off. He surveyed as he went, seeking out signs of life, but every cell he passed was empty. It made him wonder, when they looked like they’d been in use recently. Oh, there was the occasional robot that made him duck out of sight and into the shadows, but mostly he just kept moving forward and wondering what tragic fates had awaited the Resistance’s captured fighters.<br/><br/>“There’s no one here. We have to go deeper,” he whispered into his headset. “Can you follow?”<br/><br/>“Right behind you,” Skylar replied easily. “I’ll tell you if I lose sight of you.”<br/><br/>Staying together was a necessity now - neither could afford to be caught alone. It would be safer, in theory, to travel separately, but there was safety in numbers as well. And a lingering suspicion made him think that it wasn’t a matter of <em> if </em> they would need to fight their way out, but <em> when</em>, as well as the knowledge that neither of them could do so on their own. As a team, they at least stood a chance.<br/><br/>With that thought in mind, Lucas began his descent. The security got more impressive as he moved further inward, he noticed, lasers and razor-sharp spikes that he quite narrowly avoided began crossing his path more and more frequently. A particularly sudden razorlike wheel caught him by surprise, grazing the fur on one of his legs, and he leapt out of the way.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, that sent him directly into another robot’s line of sight. “Oh, not now,,” he muttered, carefully maneuvering out of the way.<br/><br/>Rouge’s voice sounded in his ear as he leapt back. “Oh, they’re on high alert now. You must be getting close - unless something’s gone wrong.”<br/><br/><em>Something like that</em>, he thought as Skylar leapt into view, smashing the robot to pieces and shoving him forward. “No time to lose,” she reminded him. “I’ll catch up later, and in the meantime I’ll do my best to make sure they can’t follow you.”<br/><br/>He didn’t like that idea. He didn’t like <em> anything about </em> that idea. But Skylar was right, there was no time. So he did as he was told, and pressed on without her. She was tough, had more experience than he did - he knew, as much as he could know anything, that she would be fine.<br/><br/>That didn’t mean he believed it. Not completely, at least.<br/><br/>He kept going, as deep as he could into the labyrinth of a prison, until he found himself trapped against a dead end. Robots piled around him, no escape in sight. Desperately, he twriled his staff, vanishing and reappearing a short distance away.<br/><br/>And, well. Apparently he’d done so at the right time, seeing as the a blur of color came crashing down where he’d been standing moments earlier. Startled, Lucas took a defensive stance, judging whether or not a shockwave would be more of a risk than it was worth - not only energy-wise, but space-wise.<br/><br/>Before he could come to a decision, the newcomer spoke. “Whoa, take it easy! Everything’s cool, yeah?”<br/><br/>He blinked, almost dropping his wispon. “You must be Sonic,” he murmured. So this was who they’d been sent to save. He’d heard stories, seen pictures, but he’d never heard him speak.<br/><br/>Somehow, he’d expected something else, without expecting anything at all. <em> Sonic the Hero</em>, whose deeds were passed around the Resistance by recruits and civilians alike in hushed tones, seemed like some sort of unreachable legend - and perhaps he was, because Sonic the Hedgehog seemed like someone else entirely.<br/><br/>Not that it was a bad thing. Just unexpected.<br/><br/>The stranger - <em> Sonic </em> - nodded, holding out his hand. “I see my reputation precedes me. So, who are <em> you</em>?”<br/><br/>Right. He had a job to do, even if Sonic seemed to have done a fine job rescuing <em> himself </em> while Lucas was busy evading robots. He stood a little taller, accepting the handshake. “Lucas Ivory. The Resistance.”<br/><br/>“The Resistance... Wait, did you come all this way to rescue me?”<br/><br/>“As soon as we learned you were still out there, yeah,” Skylar chimed in, having caught up at last. She offered a handshake of her own. “Skylar the Wolf. We didn’t know what had really happened to you until recently.”<br/><br/>“Can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” Sonic grinned, seemingly disaffected by everything. Lucas wondered briefly if it was a mask, or if he’d really just been through so much that it no longer registered. If it was a mask, he wondered why, but he also understood that it would be rude to ask and so he kept his musings to himself.<br/><br/>“You can try later,” Skylar replied easily. “Right now we’re leaving, and I’m going to just go ahead and assume you don’t remember where you parked.”<br/><br/>“Can’t say the ride here had much of a view, no."</p><hr/><p>[five. Domino]<br/><br/>Another lead had registered on her sensors. This one, unlike the last few, hadn’t fizzled out after an hour of two of chasing - it had only gotten stronger, from the faintest hint of <em> something </em> to an incredibly strong energy signal. As she drew closer, Domino grew more and more certain that whatever it was wasn’t her teammates - surely by now, with such a strong signal, they would be within communication range - but that just made her wonder what it actually <em> was </em> that much more.<br/><br/>She followed the signal with interest, and as she drew closer to the source she realized it was leading her in circles. So she pocketed the sensor, realizing that it would save time now if she searched the old-fashioned way. Flying from treetop to treetop and turning over rocks and metal plates alike, digging through the dirt beneath - it was surprisingly nostalgic for something that had been commonplace before a few months ago.<br/><br/>Eventually, though, she found what she was looking for. At least, she thought she did - it was hard to be sure, with the sensor acting strangely. But the overwhelming force of unfamiliar energy struck her senses as she tried to track its source, and she knew even without laying eyes on it what she had found.<br/><br/>Chaos energy. Which, in all but a few cases, meant Chaos Emeralds - the holy grail of most treasure hunters, they were reputed to be impossible to keep. They scattered when all seven were brought together, but even individually they were a source of energy considered mostly unmatched until recently.<br/><br/>That wasn’t even getting into the stories of the power they could grant on an individual level.<br/><br/>She’d struck gold with this one, she knew, but now she had to figure out where exactly it was. Her echolocation was usually what she used when she couldn't find something easily, but when she tried to track it all she saw was the fuzzy blur of chaos energy. She hadn't known, before, what it was like for something to appear loud or sound blinding. Actually, that was a pretty good term, considering how her echolocation worked - she was <em>soundblinded</em> by the energy. Perhaps she could learn to track it, with time, but right now it was overwhelming and led to her doing things the old way once more.<br/><br/>First she tried the treetops, looking around from the highest place she could reach. When that yielded no results, she moved down into the branches, and further still. Peeking her head into every hole in every trunk, looking for the telltale glow of color. Digging, too, proved fruitless, and she gave a frustrated sigh.<br/><br/>“<em>What </em> do I have to do to find this stupid rock?” she asked, kicking a rock of the perfectly average variety at a tree. It hit its target harder than she’d expected it to, and a shimmering light fell from a hole she’d apparently overlooked somehow.<br/><br/>The Chaos Emerald hit her on the head before bouncing into her hands. Domino simply stared at it, a little bit irritated but mostly incredulous. “Did… Did that really just happen?” Then, a moment later, as she looked around to see that she was still perfectly alone: “Figures. Who's going to believe something like that?"<br/><br/>Suddenly, she heard what almost sounded like familiar voices through her communication tech. Distorted, yes, and fuzzy too - like they were coming in through a distant connection. But the voice speaking now was unmistakable to her.<br/><br/>“ <em> Szzt </em> - lar, co <em> - szzt - </em> in for <em> - szzt - </em> ing.”<br/><br/>She fiddled with the device, rewarded by the fact that the voice on the other end became clearer. Not by much, but she could at least understand it now.<br/><br/>“Resistance pilot Skylar, coming in for landing,” came her partner’s voice, and any doubts she may have had were shattered instantly.<br/><br/>Domino flew like she never had before, pausing just long enough to lock on to the signal.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>That concludes Act 1 of this story; Chasing Chaos (I feel like naming the chapter this when it's already the fic title is a cop out, but I'm standing by it anyway). The story's not over yet, though - the next chapter is an interlude that will both provide some sweet reunions and team dynamics and lead into the next act.</p><p>Okay, so the team reunion got pushed back a little. But this does mark the first appearance of canon characters in this story, at least by name! They're not going to be major players here, but I have a bunch of thoughts on what's going on with who, and where and when it's happening in this AU. I accidentally put way more thought into it than I meant to. They'll be around in some capacity, but in the current state of my outlines they're not a really big part of the story.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>